The Ferrari team principal didn’t hide a hint of disappointment over the result of the Shanghai qualifying, but also believes that Leclerc and Sainz have the potential to climb back and challenge for the podium. Regarding the contact between the two in the Sprint, he assured that everything has already been settled.
Scuderia Ferrari had higher expectations for the Shanghai qualifying, and team principal Frederic Vasseur confirmed this, although perhaps it wasn’t even necessary since Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will only start in sixth and seventh positions with the SF-24. The regret, if any, is that in terms of race performance, things seem promising, so there’s a risk of wasting a good opportunity in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
“Not exactly,” Fred Vasseur said to Sky Sport F1 microphones when asked if he was satisfied. “It was a chaotic session, and we expected a better result honestly, but we struggled a lot. There was little consistency for everyone from one session to another, but we struggled too much today. At least this morning, we had a good pace, so we hope to recover tomorrow.” – the French manager pointed out.
When asked what didn’t work, he explained: “We lost a lot between turn 1 and turn 3, more than the gap we have from the front row because the rest of the lap was good. We need to understand why it happened in qualifying because it wasn’t like that at all in the Sprint, we were in good shape in that part of the track. I don’t know if it’s a matter of preparation or the out lap; we need to understand it because 70% of the gap to Verstappen is there.”
Despite this, just like his drivers, the Ferrari team principal is not giving up on the possibility of aiming for at least a podium finish in Shanghai. This is because factors like strategy and tire degradation management will favor their comeback.
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“The race will be long, and everyone experienced considerable tire degradation, while we were in good condition at the end of the Sprint. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to overtake because there was a sort of train of cars all with DRS. Tomorrow, however, it will be different in the long race because you can play with the strategy to have clear track ahead and run in clean air. It wasn’t the result we expected, but we can recover tomorrow.” – the Ferrari team principal continued.
In light of today’s result, the doubt arises whether perhaps too conservative a setting choice was made, as suggested by Charles Leclerc: “We’ll see tomorrow. We’re always scoring points on Sundays, while I remember last year sometimes we were strong on Saturdays and struggled in the race. We’ve made a good improvement in this regard, so I think we can recover tomorrow because tire degradation will be crucial: if we manage it well, I believe we’ll have the opportunity to return to the podium.”
Today, there was also much talk about the contact in the final moments of the Sprint between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, for which the Spaniard immediately apologized. When asked if there were any specific instructions for tomorrow, Fred Vasseur started with a joke: “To finish the race and bring home some points (laughs). It went well this morning, we’ve already clarified things. I think Carlos was a bit upset after the fight with Alonso, but everything is under control.” – Frederic Vasseur concluded.
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